This is an extremely rare 1948 Cadillac 75 Series Fleetwood Ambulance Conversion. This is 1 of only 2,067 commercial chassis vehicles that Cadillac shipped to independent coach builders in 1948 (per the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc. website). This survivng 75 Series Commercial Chassis vehicle has matching serial numbers, is virtually 98% complete and in amazingly great "desert" conditon, no rust-through, after 60+ years:
- Meteor Motor Car Co. of Piqua, OH did the 1948 factory conversion.
- Meteor production records indicate this was Meteor's 281st vehicle produced that year.
- Meteor Motor Co. VIN tag (instead of a Cadillac VIN tag)
- Coach Builder's Model: #76-481
- Wheelbase is 163" (Cadillac's 75 Series "Commercial Chassis").
- The body measures 20'3" long x 6'6".
- Surprisingly, ALL of the custom "Meteor" branded stainless steel trim, rocker panel threshold moldings, etc. are intact plus all of the garnish trim molding around the custom features (e.g. the rear window garnish mouldings, base for the landau lights, etc.).
History of the Meteor Motor Car Co. - Meteor enjoyed a long and successful life as a manufacturer of hearses and ambulances. Meteor introduced their first hearse in 1915 and was supplied by bodymaker A. J. Miller (Bellefontaine, Ohio) for several years before Miller decided to manufacture its own complete vehicles and compete with Meteor. In 1933 Meteor began using the Buick chassis in place of their own. In 1954 the company was acquired by the Wayne Works (later to become a division of the Divco-Wayne Corporation); Miller was acquired by the same company two years later, and the two old competitors were consolidated under the Miller-Meteor brand. The plant closed in 1979, but the name was acquired by Collins Industries, Inc. Surviving "old-timer" employees of the original Meteor Motor Car Co. are planning a 30 year anniversary gathering on Labor Day weekend, 2009 in Piqua, OH.
Note: Original build records from the Meteor Motor Car Co. no longer exist, sort of. During the 1979 closure, management literally tossed all records into the dumpster behind the building (along with buckets of paint and other trash). Recognizing the value of these build records, one loyal employee attempted to fetch what he could out of the dumpster (however, some records were covered in paint, thus useless). Tossed into boxes (mixed up and disorganized), these saved records remained in the employee's private possession for the past 30 years. However, it is anticipated that these records will be donated to Piqua, Ohio's new library sometime about January 2009.
All images are © 2008, (used by permission from IdeationPro.com)
